
Hesham
Sallam
Profile
Hesham Sallam is an Egyptian professor at both the School of Sciences and Engineering, American University in Cairo (AUC) and at the Department of Geology, Mansoura University, Egypt. He founded the Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology (MUVP) Center in 2010. Sallam received his bachelor's degree from the Department of Geology at Mansoura University in 1997 and earned his doctorate degree at the University of Oxford (UK) in 2010. He was promoted to the position of full Professor in 2022 to become the country’s first Egyptian professor of vertebrate paleontology. Sallam was recognized for his research and leadership when he was selected as the Middle East-North Africa recipient of the Science and Sustainability Award by the British Council’s Study UK Alumni committee (2021-2022). Moreover, he was named 2019’s Figure of the Year at Mansoura University in recognition of his scientific achievements. Sallam is also an appointed member of the National Committee for Geological Sciences and at the Egyptian Young Academy for Sciences, which belongs to the Egyptian Academy of Sciences and Technology. In 2022, he was appointed to the Council of Egyptian Culture and Knowledge by the Egyptian Minister of Higher Education. Sallam’s scientific research has been published in numerous high-profile academic journals, including Nature Communications, Nature Communications Biology, Nature Ecology and Evolution, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, PLoS ONE, PeerJ, and Geology. Further, he has been a visiting scholar at Duke University, Stony Brook University, Ohio University, and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science – all of which are in the USA. The Sallam Lab maintains active paleontological field projects in Egypt, which have led to the discovery of the most complete dinosaur known from the entire Late Cretaceous of Africa (Mansourasaurus) and to the documentation of a transitional and amphibious whale (Phiomicetus), which is the most primitive species of the family Protocetidae from all of Africa. Moreover, the Sallam Lab is studying Egyptian faunal assemblages associated with Paleogene hyperthermal, which can inform the impacts of climate change on Egypt’s ancient ecosystems. These discoveries have not only improved the understanding of Africa’s ancient prehistory but also have helped to popularize paleontology in the Middle East. His important contributions to Egyptian paleontology include founding the MUVP (the only high-level vertebrate paleontology research unit in the Middle East), combined research, outreach, and conservation endeavors based out of Mansoura University. Currently, Sallam is dedicated to educating the next generation of Egyptian vertebrate paleontologists, expanding awareness of Egypt's vertebrate paleontological resources for public outreach and training, and undertaking the collection, preparation, study, and curation of Egypt's fossil vertebrates.
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- Salem BS, Lamanna MC, O’Connor PM, El-Qot GM, Shaker FA, Thabet WA, El-Sayed S, Sallam HM. (2022) First definitive record of Abelisauridae (Theropoda: Ceratosauria) from the Cretaceous Bahariya Formation, Bahariya Oasis, Western Desert of Egypt. Royal Socity Open Science.
- Gohar AS, Antar MS, Boessenecker RW, Sabry DA, El-Sayed S, Seiffert E, Zalmout IS and Sallam HM (2021) A new protocetid whale offers clues to biogeography and feeding ecology in early cetacean evolution. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
- El-Sayed S, Friedman M, Anan T, Faris M, Sallam HM (2021) Diverse marine fish assemblages inhabited the paleotropics during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. Geology.
- Al Ashqar SF, Seiffert ER, de Vries D, El-Sayed S, Antar MS, Sallam HM (2021) New phiocricetomyine rodents (Hystricognathi) from the Jebel Qatrani Formation, Fayum Depression, Egypt. PeerJ.
- De Vries D, Heritage S, Borths MR, Sallam HM and Seiffert ER (2021) Widespread loss of mammalian lineage and dietary diversity of the early Oligocene of Afro-Arabia, Communications Biology.
- Sallam HM and Seiffert ER (2020) Revision of Oligocene “Paraphiomy” and an origin for crown Thryonomyoidea (Rodentia, Hystricognathi, Phiomorpha) near the Oligocene-Miocene boundary in Africa. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, zlz148.
- Almécija S, Tallman M, Sallam HM, Fleagle JG, Hammond AS, Seiffert ER (2019) Early anthropoid femora reveal divergent adaptive trajectories in catarrhine hind-limb evolution. Nat Commun 10, 4778 (2019).
- Sallam HM, Gorscak E, O'Connor PM, El-Dawoudi IA, Saber S and El-SayedSE, Kora MA, Sertich JJ, Seiffert ER, Lamanna M (2018) New Egyptian sauropod dinosaur unambiguously reveals Late Cretaceous (Campanian–Maastrichtian) faunal affinities between Africa and Europe. Nature Ecology & Evolution.
- El-SayedSE, Kora MA, Sallam HM, Claeson KM, Antar MS and Seiffert ER (2017) A new genus and species of catfishes (Siluriformes; Ariidae) from the late Eocene Birket Qarun Formation, Wadi El-Hitan, Egypt.
- Sallam HM, O'Connor PM, Kora MA, Sertich JJ, Seiffert ER, Faris M, Ouda KA, El-Dawoudi IA, Saber S, El-Sayed SE (2016) Vertebrate paleontological exploration of the Upper Cretaceous succession in the Dakhla and Kharga Oases, Western Desert, Egypt. Journal of African Earth Sciences.
- Sileem AH, Sallam HM, Hewaidy AA, Gunnell GF and Miller ER (2015) Anthracotheres (Mammalia, Artiodactyla) from the upper-most horizon of the Jebel Qatrani Formation, latest early Oligocene, Fayum Depression, Egypt, Egyptian Journal of Paleontology.
- Sallam HM (2014). Hesham M. Sallam. In: Sánchez-Villagra, M.R. & MacLeod, N. Issues in Palaeobiology: a Global View, Interviews and Essays
- Sallam HM, Seiffert ER, and Simons EL (2012) A basal phiomorph (Rodentia, Hystricognathi) from the late Eocene of the Fayum Depression, Egypt. Swiss Journal of Palaeontology.
- Sallam HM, Seiffert ER, Simons EL (2011) Craniodental Morphology and Systematics of a New Family of Hystricognathous Rodents (Gaudeamuridae) from the Late Eocene and Early Oligocene of Egypt. PLoS ONE 6(2): e16525.
- Sallam HM, Seiffert ER, Simons EL, and Brindley C (2010) A large-bodied anomaluroid rodent from the earliest late Eocene of Egypt: Phylogenetic and biogeographic implications. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 30, 5 : 1579 – 1593.
- Sallam HM, Seiffert ER, Steiper ME, and Simons EL (2009) Fossil and molecular evidence constrain scenarios for the early evolutionary and biogeographic history of hystricognathous rodents. (PNAS) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 106:16722-16727.
- Kora MA, Hamama H, and Sallam HM (2002) Senonian macrofauna from west-central Sinai: biostratigraphy and biogeography. Egyptian Journal of Paleontology 2: 235-258.
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- Professor, Department of Geology, Mansoura University, Egypt 2017- present
- Director of the Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center (MUVP) center 2010- 2020
- Research Associate, Department of Evolutionary Anthropology and Division of Fossil Primates, Duke Lemur Center, Duke University, USA 2015- 2017
- Visiting Scholar, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Ohio University College of Medicine, Athens, OH, USA2014-2015
- Visiting Scholar, Department of Anatomical Sciences, Health Sciences Center, Stony Brook University, NY, USA
- Visiting Scholar, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, CO, USA 2014-2015
- Lecturer, Department of Geology, Mansoura University, Egypt 2010-2014
- Affiliated Scientist, Department of Anatomical Sciences, Health Sciences Center, Stony Brook University, NY, USA 2008-2010
- PhD student, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, UK 2006-2010
- Assistant Lecturer, Department of Geology, Mansoura University, Egypt 2003-2010
- Demonstrator, Department of Geology, Mansoura University, Egypt 1997-2003
- Working broadly on vertebrate paleontological research in Egypt
- Currently focusing on Paleogene mammals from the Fayum Depression and Dinosaurs from Western Desert of Egypt
- Experience with research on Stratigraphy in the Paleozoic and Cretaceous deposits of Egypt